Anglican bishop: 'We are all as guilty as Josef Fritzl'

The Bishop of Stafford, Gordon Mursell, has in his latest newsletter claimed that we are all as guilty as Josef Fritzl, the Austrian child torturer. This is because of our for failure to act on climate change. We are in effect locking up our children and grandchildren and throwing away the key, because we are imprisoning them in a world with no future, he says. Incredible, isn't it! I'm at one here with Libby Purves, who has also blogged it. And I am also in accord with the excellent Frank Furedi, who explains why the Bishop is the Church's new witchfinder-general and any stepping out of line on global warming the new heresy in an article on Spiked. (Update: the bishop has clarified his remarks and, in a typically Anglican shoot-the-messenger litany that I can only conclude is taught to all clergy at theological college, he says he meant what he said, but people are only getting upset because the media have had the presumption to report him. Goodness the arrogance of the laity. How dare we take advantage of being a free press. Stop digging bishop! The hole is getting bigger. Truly this is a disaster of environmental proportions.)

He wrote: 'These two events have more in common than we might think. It’s easy to demonize Josef Fritzl. And it’s certainly hard to imagine a more monstrous or revolting crime. The publication of photographs showing him sunbathing in Thailand while his helpless daughter and several young children were locked in his basement is bound to make us ask: how could anyone do such a thing?

'And yet Josef Fritzl represents merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck. In fact you could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as he is – we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key. We are right to be disgusted at these crimes. But mere disgust is too convenient. There are lessons for all of us to learn.'

The story was picked up by Today this morning and over the weekend by my former paper, The Birmingham Post, where I was indentured in the early 1980s. Before that, when I studied Charles Dickens at 'A' level at Uttoxeter's Thomas Alleyne's school, incidentally about to celebrate its 450th anniversary this month, my father was a clergyman in the Stafford area of the Lichfield diocese.The present incumbent, a recent speaker incidentally for the ultra-liberal Modern Churchpeople's Union, reminds me a little in his latest utterance of Mrs Jellaby in Bleak House. She was a woman so concerned with the starving abroad that she completely neglected the considerable sufferings of the little children in her own house.

It leaves me wondering just how much more absurd the Church of England can get. The future seems bleak indeed, although not because of global warming.

(Udate: here is the bishop's latest statement, referenced above.

Statement from the Bishop of Stafford

On Boxing Day 2004, an undersea earthquake off the west coast of Sumatra triggered a series of devastating tsunamis which killed more than 225,000 people in eleven countries.  It was one of the deadliest natural disasters in history.

And last month Cyclone Nargis left more than 134,000 people dead or missing in the Irrawaddy delta area of Myanmar / Burma; and the UN are reporting that 2.4 million people are struggling to rebuild their lives.

These natural disasters are heartbreaking - and we can do nothing to prevent them - although the Burmese authorities are turning what was a huge natural disaster into an even greater man-made catastrophe by blocking aid and expertise from the country.

Surely if we could have done something to save lives we would have done it?  Well, maybe not.

My pastoral letter for this month’s parish magazines has received widespread media attention and criticism.

The focus is on one line, where I say: 'ou could argue that, by our refusal to face the truth about climate change, we are as guilty as [Josef Fritzl] – we are in effect locking our children and grandchildren into a world with no future and throwing away the key.'

I am not saying that people who refuse to accept the reality of global change are child abusers - but that’s what is being reported on internet blogs. Whether that’s because of the way the letter has been reported; or because I used an extreme example is for others to decide.

[rg writes: I have to interject here or I'll explode. Dear, dear, silly bishop, you are being reported as having said this because it is what you said. If you as a bishop decide to use the word 'guilty' in a comparative sense, you can't suddenly turn round and plead 'not guilty'. Or you can, but you're going to look even a bigger idiot than before. Oh these liberals. When will they all retire. As Homer Simpson says, Doh!!! I know I am going a bit further in this comment than I normally would but I'm a bit upset about Chris Morgan. If Chris was alive and well and in exclusive possession of this story, he would have had such fun with it.]

[The bishop continues:] I’ld like to set the record straight:  I am not suggesting that, to quote the BBC News website’s headline: 'Climate deniers are like Fritzl' - and to those people who are offended because they think I have said that people who deny climate change are like paedophiles I’d like to apologise for being unclear. [No 'unclarity' then bishop? rg]

'But I do not seek to retract the letter or the point that I was actually trying to make - which is a point so old you’d think people would understand it by now.  The corny way of putting it is that “I” is the centre of “SIN”.

'All to often in today’s society the philosophy of “me first” has overtaken the idea of the “common good” and what is important for “me” and “my family” take precedent over what’s good for the stranger on the other side of the world.' [rg comments: what a disgraceful and insulting non-sequitor that sentence contains from a man ordained to a position of moral and spiritual leadership. For myself, I am proud to put my family first. Yes, I put feeding my family before feeding the thousands made homeless in China, although I might contribute a little to that as well. I put my family before myself. Geddit, bishop? That's why we're all so furious. That's what you just don't get.]

And while we have the liberty in the West of debating whether climate change is real or perceived; or whether “that scientist” should be believed over “this scientist” people are dying.

Some of the emails I’ve received say that I should keep my nose out of climate change issues because I’m not a scientist.  This is the very response that must be condemned.  If we leave this important issue to scientists we have a convenient excuse to do nothing.

Christian Aid warns that unless urgent action is taken, some 250 million people will be forced to leave their homes between now and 2050.  Thirty million people will go hungry as agricultural yields go into recession across the globe; and acute water shortages will affect 1-3 billion people.

Climate change isn’t simply a rhetorical question.  It is real and it is here and is having an effect now.  Thousands of lives are at risk.

But we can and must do something about it.

So if my point has been lost by a clumsy analogy then I’m sorry; but I’m not sorry for raising the issue.

One blogger said the church leaders should speak less about the environment and more about Christ.  That blogger obviously didn’t read what I said - which wasn’t much about the environment at all; but about a Christian response to moral decay and political apathy - and that is to “offer and live Christ’s vision of a new and better world.”

Comments

[kappalovespi]

Could the comments by Gordon Mursell be any more tasteless? What is wrong with the Church for christ's sake!! Its led by an aging hippie with no arse and after comments like this its little wonder that its the Church losing its way not just individuals. How ignorant and tasteless to try compare the sufferings of a woman repeatedly raped by her father, forced to endure giving birth to the resulting children alone, enduring the death of one of them, being imprisoned and having her freedom taken from her and the children, the massive psycological damage they have and will endure to climate change? It beggars belief, to even utter it in the same sentence is downright rude and offensive. Yes there is a debate to be made for climate change and the future we are offering our own children if we do not address it but it is hardly appropriate to do so in this manner. Of course he'll come out with the "at least its provoked debate" spiel that they all do when they realise theyve shot themselves in the foot. Im stunned. How can someone who is obviously an educated clever person be so monumentally dim?

[BIGDAN]

"We are all as guilty as Josef Fritzl"

Of course we're all as guilty as Josef Fritzl! ALL have fallen short of the glory of God!

[Ed Tomlinson]

Two things:

1) The Bishop embarrasses himself with this crass, clumsy and insensitive analogy. A brutal attempt to induce guilt rather than put a point accross with clarity. Truly moronic.

2) It highlights a deeper malais. The C of E has largely lost faith. High days and holy days give way to faitrade sunday and ecological issues. Clear teaching on Christ is given less priority than environmentalism.

The environment may or may not be in trouble. Regardless it is for environmentalists and politiians not Bishops. There are too many lost souls to worry about first...

Honestly it is as pathetic as it is sad. Find your backbone House of Bishops and put energy into pulling the church together and evengelising in the 21st Century. This smacks of re-arranging deck chairs whilst the ship goes down.......

[Dr. Irene Lancaster FRSA]

This goes some of the way to explaining the language used on the liberal left of the church (as in society in general) when they accuse Israel of heinous crimes and forget militant Islam.

There is no-one of note from the Jewish world among the speakers at the conference on violence you link to at the end of your piece. I wonder why that is.

This guy would no doubt have been good:

http://irenelancaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/06/the-university-boycott-of-israel-and-thinking-outside-the-box.html

But discussing violence in our own back yard, i.e. on British university campuses, aimed almost exclusively at the Jewish community, staff, students, ancillary workers and chaplains, just doesn't seem to ring any bells, does it?

[David Cohen]

Is this really the sort of Church leadership we need? Only yesterday they were complaining about the poor quality of their vicars - but we poor pew fodder have rather more doubts about our idiotic bishops. This one neatly confirms it.

[J Pearce]

I thought it was accepted Church policy to blame homosexuals for climate change?

[Stephen Wikner]

And the bishops are complaining about the calibre of the priests they ordain. Physician heal thyself.

[Rowan Grigg]

Gordon has perhaps reached for an extreme comparison, but there is nothing absurd about the imperative that we care for creation, indeed for the sake of those not yet born. I understand and share his dismay at how inexorably we are destroying the world with which we have been entrusted.

[George Parr]

More compelling evidence of muddled and pointless analogies from highly vocal clerics. These people really will latch on to absolutely anything with which to associate depressing ideas, however tenuous the connection, in order to promote guilt in the minds of anyone who will listen to interminable nonsense. I am embarrassed for open-minded souls with a genuine faith.

[Dan]

What a cringe inducing creep. Utterly, utterly embarrassing! No wonder . . .

[Tony B]

Obviously this is nonsense. But I think you have to be careful about blaming the Church of England in the large for the absurd utterances of one Bishop. I'm excited about the many good things that are also going on in the Church.

Also I take issue with Ed Tomlinson. If we waited for politicians to sort problems out, we'd wait forever. Politics is even more broken than the Church. If we all decide that everything is someone elses problem, we're all doomed. Bishops have as much right to talk about environmental issues as anyone else. One would just rather that when they do talk about it, they talk sense.

[J Pearce]

Hilarious asides…err…aside, I notice that some apologists are trying to cover the Bish's ass, by suggesting that he actually has the kernel of a point to make.

Well, OK, lets look at some of the issues. Man's consumption of the planets resources is at the heart of global warming theory, right? So - some sort of population control/reduction would seem in order then.

BUT - Roman Catholics oppose abortion on the grounds of "sanctity of life" and also contraception. Ergo, Christianity effectively condones unfettered population growth. Go figure.

OK, so what about methods of reducing carbon footprints? How about recycling and re-use of existing resources? Well, lets turn our abundance of permanently near-empty Churches to better use, shall we? OOOH NO, MISSUS! They're sacred! Can't touch the Church's, or indeed, the voluminous abundance of land that the Church currently owns. Go figure.

How about food? Well, looks like GM crops are going to be a necessity with Chinese and Indian populations devouring more of the worlds food resources. But do Christians support GM? Don't be silly! Playing God with genetics? Can't be having that!

What about the back-slapping/mutual antipathy exercises that are Lambeth and GAFCON this year? Why not cancel them and do it via videoconferencing, save those air miles? Are you kidding? Pass up a free lunch on the other side of the planet when someone else is paying? I mean, doing God has to have some benefits, right?!

The Bish of Stafford is a joke, even without the crass analogies. When the religious start leading the way by travelling via donkey, growing their own food and rationally approaching the subject of procreation - then they can preach to the rest of us about how "selfish" we all inherently are (nice of the Bish to casually label everyone except himself, a trait quite common to clerics in this country it appears).

Until then, best leave grown up issues to the grown ups. File under the Nazir-Ali school of unremitting misery and stupidity.

[Esmerelda Weatherwax]

I think Bishop Gordon needs to be seconded to the Parish at Alum Rock in Birmingham to do a stint of street preaching.
The real menace is there and facing it may bring him down to earth.

[Chris Gillibrand]

I departed the Anglican fold some twenty years ago, although if this is an example of an Anglican shepherd, I think that I am rather safer in Rome.

St Thomas Aquinas enunciates Five Ways to prove that God exists. Fortunately, the Church has used rather higher standards of argumentation to show that God exists, than those who set out to prove that global warming exists.

[kappalovespi]

Its about time the church of england found themselves a leader with courage, conviction and a backbone. A person that can lead them on into the 21st century committed wholeheartedly to their Christian faith and a christian society, afterall we are meant to be a Christian society! We've been to busy making sure we dont upset anyone by being as inclusive as we can that we have lost our way spiritually as a nation and the Church should be there guiding us. Yes, each to there own and respect others beliefs but i cant help but feel that the Muslims/Jews/Hindus/Sikhs and everyother religion in this country would have a damn site more respect for us if we actually had some moral fiber and sought to effectively reflect it in our society through our church and government. Personally im all for the Bishop of Rochester, there is a man of courage, someone who definitely should have got the job!

[Chris Gillibrand]

PS
The Bishop's wife is a psychiatrist- perhaps she can help him to understand the nature of Friztl's evil. The occasion for this evil is not Western secularism, rather it is of a very specific Austrian nature.

The Bishop has written many books among them "Out of the Deep"- it will shortly be reissued as "Out of My Depth".

[kieransmum]

Has the Bishop of Stafford given up car use, left his bishop's palace and downsized into a small house which he doesn't heat, ordered all the churches in his diocese to turn off the heating and use no paper, also not allow anyone to travel to church by car etc?
Of course he hasn't.
Silly hypocrite.

[George Parr]

I suppose in light of Mr Mursell's unwise comments, we can expect Bishop Dow, or any one of a number of other unelected, but high-profile, worthies to emerge at any minute, grab the ecclesiastical spotlight and blame global warming on moral decadence. It's not just ONE lone prelate making uninformed utterances Tony B. With views like these (there are examples too numerous to mention) perhaps your valid point about waiting for ever for politicians to sort things out can be extended to the aeons of time it is taking for House of Lords reform, in which the urgent expulsion of one-colour chattering clerics, representing no other institution than their own, might play a large part!

[davidc]

being a loony 'toon apparently isn't a bar to high office in the c of e

[l mendez]

...this guy,Bishop of Stafford, the Right Rev. Gordon Mursell,someone needs to check what he has been sniffing. He needs to stick with what he does best, pretend to have delusions of grandeur...he needs to go and sell crazy somewhere else.

[J Pearce]

"Fortunately, the Church has used rather higher standards of argumentation to show that God exists, than those who set out to prove that global warming exists."

This is archtypal ignorance on a scale one now expects from the religious. Chris, it has been conclusively proved that the earth goes through periods of warming and cooling (Glaciation? Ice ages? Remember? Doh!). The evidence to support this is unarguable, unlike the self-justifying verbiage spouted by Aquinas et al.

The argument currently raging is NOT whether the earth will experience another such event (it’s a given), but whether the activities of humans are accelerating the process. Now, there is much contradictory evidence and I am unsure as to whether the environmental doom mongers are right to label man as the prime cause of global warming, if indeed the event is occuring on the timescales being worried about; however, there IS a highly persuasive argument that the consumption of finite natural resources (oil, minerals etc) should be rationed by, amongst other things, recycling what we consume.

Its not rocket science to equate a burgeoning population with more rapid consumption of resources. Given this, the RCC stance on birth control looks as antiquated and thoroughly stupid as it actually is, don't you think? Or has that escaped you?

[Chris]

The Bishop seems totally out of touch with life as lived by most people. Most people do not have time or resources to contemplate doing what makes them happy..they get by doing what they can honestly and with dignity.
This Bishop has shown himself to be a berk and a half..His photo suggests that he could do with lowering his calorie intake

[BIGDAN]

J Pearce - what you say about Genetic Modification and christians. I've never met a christian who has ethical problems with eating GM food. There are ethical problems with genetically modifying humans - is that what you're thinking of?

Ed Tomlinson - you say that Bishops should not be bothering about the Environment, but leave that to politicians. It is true that evangelism should take priority for them, but the problem is that a large number of fundamentalists over in the US think that christianity justifies destroying the environment because God's going to destroy the world anyway - hence all the theological fussing about it.

[fiona]

I am shocked that the bishop could actually say something like this. I beleive that the climate is a problem, but to use ananology such as this too shock us out of apathy is wrong and misguided.

[Steven]

Two parts for the Bishop:

Firstly he should have thought carefully about what he said. It was one thing being a prophet saying if people don't change their ways things will be much worse eg with Climate Change, but yes the analogy was bound to shock, as the posts here show.

2nd he could offered hope for a better future in Christ, but apart a few mealy mouthed words at the end he could not do that.

[Tom Jackson]

No, fair do’s; the Bishop does have a point – well, in the same way, at least, that someone like J Pearce could be said to have a point.

Yes, it’s a bit extreme and far-fetched but taken from the perspective Gordon Mursell is trying to convey, he has rather clumsily connected an atrocious act by a thoroughly despicable individual – who displayed no respect or humanity to another human being – to the possible reality of the world in the future if we continue to exhibit – as some would put it – a complete disregard and lack of respect and humanity for humans who have yet to be born.

It is up to each of us as individuals to determine if we have any moral responsibility for the consequences of how we live today and what we do – or fail to do – about safeguarding the future for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren etc. etc. Although a Bishop is at the centre of this controversy, it is no more a religious debate than the issue of, for example, abortion.

As with abortion, this is about setting standards for the way we live, determining what is acceptable now and in the future and being willing to modify our behaviour taking account of something other than self-interest and the here and now.

The Bishop has, without doubt, put his foot in it – right up to his waist! But allowing for his misjudgement, there is a truth which it is difficult to deny.

[Alistair]

Chris Gillibrand:

"St Thomas Aquinas enunciates Five Ways to prove that God exists. Fortunately, the Church has used rather higher standards of argumentation to show that God exists, than those who set out to prove that global warming exists."

You're joking, right?

[Chris Gillibrand]

If I may another PS- I could not resist posting this description of the Bishop from the National Deaneries conference website. The Bishop is something of an expert on the complexities of medieval theology although perhaps he will be the last to see that carbon trading schemes really are an odious trade in indulgences, if one falsely interprets the word indulgence as a permission to sin.

"Gordon Mursell is uniquely gifted. He is an inspiring poet, preacher and envisioner who has enthused people with the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. He is also gracious and courteous with the most marvellous sense of humour qualities that inspire those to whom he ministers.

Gordon’s journey to faith is an interesting one. He says he would have joined the Roman Catholic Church if there had been one in his village in Surrey, and that he is therefore an "accidental Anglican"

Accidental Anglican, one can say that again.

[Chris Gillibrand]

To Alistair.

No, I am not joking. Bjorn Lomborg in his book the Sceptical Environmentalist highlights the standards of proof prevailing in this area.

And for those with stamina, a critique of Al Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth

[Andrew CJ]

Oh, dear! Of course, it does look as though the bishop unguardedly and unadvisely said certain things that might have been better left unsaid or said differently.

But no need to get one's knickers in a twist, though, and wonder rather aloud just how much more absurd the C of E can become, just because one is a media sort. And just because one is a media sort should not mean one has a licence to write anything anytime about anyone, even if what one writes is absurd...

Must be wonderful to be part of the media and spout off anything at anyone anytime.

[Alistair]

Sorry, Chris, I wasn't referring to the green question when asking if you were joking, I was referring to your remark about the Aquinas five ways to "prove" god's existence.

The argument about climate change, by the way, is not about whether or not there is evidence for it, but how the evidence is interpreted. Climate change has been around for billions of years. But at least there is evidence about which we can have a debate.

[J Pearce]

Mr Gillibrand,

Are you seriously suggesting that climate change doesn't occur?!

I don't even think your man Aquinas would be that stupid...

[Chris Gillibrand]

St Thomas Aquinas was a pupil of St Albert the Great- GK Chesterton relates in his biography of St Thomas,

St Albert was too good a schoolmaster not to know that the dunce is not always a dunce. He learned with amusement that this dunce (Aquinas!) had been nicknamed the Dumb Ox by his school-fellows. All that is natural enough; but it does
not take away the savour of something rather strange and symbolic,about the extraordinary emphasis with which he spoke at last.

For Aquinas was still generally known only as one obscure and obstinately unresponsive pupil, among many more brilliant and promising pupils, when the great Albert broke silence with his famous cry and prophecy;

"You call him a Dumb Ox; I tell you this Dumb Ox shall bellow so loud that his bellowings will fill the world."

A poor devotee of the Dumb Ox will come back shortly about global warming.

[saint]

I stand with you on this Ruth. But then, if most of the CoE will bow the knee to Molech, why not Gaia as well?

Pagans all (and that's probably an insult to the pagans of old; I doubt yesterday's pagans were as stupid as today's neo-pagans)

[saint]

"...but the problem is that a large number of fundamentalists over in the US think that christianity justifies destroying the environment because God's going to destroy the world anyway - hence all the theological fussing about it."

BigDan - what a load of crock. All these mythical U.S. fundies, who are they? How many are there? Where is it that they are on a rampage to destroy the earth? You really need to stop listening to those voices in your head.

[Christopher Johnson]

Only an Anglican bishop would use an idiotic, libelous comparison to make a debatable point. Asshat.

[Sempronius]

It's one thing to say that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. It's another to trivialise the suffering of victims of a most appalling crime.

I'm getting rather sick of this kind of behaviour from bishops of the established Church. Especially the astounding arrogance of the unapologetic "apologies" we get afterwards.

What is it with the CofE anyway? Take any moderately sized group of people and somebody is bound to say something stupid sooner or later, but in the case of Church of England bishops they seem to be engaged in some kind of perverse competition.

[Chris Gillibrand]

As promised, returning to global warming- As an Oxford trained scientist, I was always trained to understand the mechanism, using empirical and experimental data. Anecdotes and putative scenarios are being used as a substitute for these tools and no-one has come up with any mechanism that properly links increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere with global warming.
This is itself presently difficult as global warming has not been happening since 1998, although experts predict the temperature will resume an upward trend after 2015.

It seems, however, possible that this absence of global warming is linked to sunspot rather than industrial activity. See the presentation at the bottom of this page (no, Cap’n Bob, the author of this blog is not Robert Maxwell returned to haunt us) and the more recent numbers showing decreased sunspot activity..

I once attended a meeting on climate change in Brussels where two scientists from the United Nations Environment Programme spoke in response to a Professor of climatology. The gist of the argument against the speaker was “you can’t say that, this is what we work on”.

This is potentially far too serious a problem for there to be even the smallest suspicion that the whole idea is the product of an institutionalised dogmatism similar to that which gave us the mad hunt for Saddam’s WMD.

PS
Now, Robert Maxwell was a case of someone who believed what they wanted to believe- he rushed to the House of Commons in 1968 to defend the Soviet invasion of his homeland. Allegedly, he was on their bankroll but that I can’t believe.

[alan]

T. Aquinas' "proofs" of god's existence cannot be taken seriously by anyone of above-average intelligence. Admittedly, though, this does rule out a lot of people.

[Stephen Clark]

I preached a sermon like this probably 25 years ago. I hope I have grown out of this sort of moronic stupidity.
It does raise the question (as other correspondents have noted) of how bishops have the cheek to say the rank-and-file clergy are incompetent.
I have blogged about this elsewhere (http://stephenclarks.blogspot.com/2008/06/put-your-left-leg-in.html)

[Canon Ball]

I dunno. The last time an Austrian hid away his secret lover and several children from the world, they made one of the most successful musicals of all time about the experience. Bishops are so fickle.

[Chris Gillibrand]

I take the Aquinas proofs of God's existence very seriously. I passed the Oxford entrance exam before my sevententh birthday, so I would guess that I am no fool. But perhaps Oxford's admission standards even in 1982 were not what they were, so would not describe myself as having above average intelligence.

However, The (real) fool (would say) hath said in his heart: There is no God,
to quote Psalms 13 and 52. For this is indeed a matter not of the intellect but of the heart, even given the intellectualism of St Thomas (a preventative against its opposite, stupidity).

[J Pearce]

Chris,

When your scientific credentials appear to be impeccable, as yours do, I find it remarkable that you find it so difficult to acknowledge that climate change does, in fact, occur.

Whether it is entirely a product of human endeavour is open to serious challenge, as you rightly point out. But it is not inconceivable that increased human CO2 output would affect the global climate system in some manner, even if it is actually a minimal factor. But the real point, to me, is the utilisation of natural global resources. I see nothing in Christianity that emphasises the need to conserve the bioshpere. Which, I would have thought, is essential for humankind in the long term.

I do have to say, though, that I find it richly ironic that you talk about "institutionalised dogmatism", when you are a confirmed Catholic. What are Aquinas proofs, if not precisely that?